article by Jake Mendel

Creative Atlas and New Wave Arts are set to launch a unique, bilingual interpretation of A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, Love Letters, at the American Theatre of Actors’ (ATA) Sargent Theatre in New York City from November 19–23, 2025. Starring Maria Atlas and Lev Grzhonko, who also produce the work, this new staging is performed in Russian with English subtitles, offering a powerful cross-cultural lens on a classic American drama.

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The Production: Intimacy Across Languages

A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters chronicles the lifelong correspondence between two childhood friends, Melissa and Andy, whose relationship unfolds entirely through the letters they exchange. Their words span decades of childhood ambition, longing, heartbreak, and reconciliation, revealing a love that endures despite the circumstances that keep them apart.

Under the direction of Gera Sandler, this limited engagement seeks to bridge two distinct theatrical traditions: Russian emotional expressiveness and American dramatic restraint.

Grzhonko, co-founder of New Wave Arts and the play’s Andy, notes that performing the work in Russian gives the text a different register of “tenderness and irony” than English, using “longer vowels, heavier silences.” The mission is to test the universality of the story: “Does this story still break your heart when the vowels change? Yes. And something new appears.”

The production emphasizes that “language [is] both a barrier and a bridge,” exploring how communication itself becomes the “truest and most vulnerable act of love.” The Russian title chosen for the production, “Любовь в письмах” (“Love in Letters”), highlights that the surviving element of their relationship is the feeling that lives between the lines, not just the documents themselves.

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The Creative Forces: Maria Atlas and Lev Grzhonko

The production is anchored by its two leads, both seasoned producers and artists with expansive international backgrounds:

Lev Grzhonko (as Andy and New Wave Arts Co-Founder)

Grzhonko brings a unique background to the stage, having been a Harvard-trained economist and businessman before moving into acting and production. After early success directing short films, he moved into theatre for its “electricity,” where “you breathe with the audience or you lose them.”

New Wave Arts, which he co-founded, was born from a desire for theatre that is “intimate” rather than “loud but not intimate.” The company focuses on “high-signal productions” with “no excess, just human stakes,” making Love Letters an ideal vehicle for its mission of “intimacy over spectacle.”

Grzhonko views Love Letters as being about the “math of missed chances and the grace of connection,” seeing it as a “Stradivarius if you dare to play it plainly.”

Maria Atlas (as Melissa and Creative Atlas Founder)

Atlas is a multi-talented American/Russian film and stage actress, creative producer, and singer-songwriter. She has focused her career on pioneering innovative cultural and artistic projects, gaining international recognition as a key creative producer for the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games closing ceremonies.

Her company, Creative Atlas, manifests her mission to produce socially conscious and cross-cultural works. Atlas has a history of integrating the arts into community development, having created inclusive theater projects for teens from troubled families and foster homes, as well as pioneering immersive gastro shows in Moscow.

Adding a contemporary layer to the production, Atlas’s recent album will serve as the soundtrack for the new staging of Love Letters.

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Process and Philosophy

Both Atlas and Grzhonko maintain a practical separation between their roles as producers and performers. Grzhonko explains that he builds a “firewall with time,” dedicating mornings to logistics (budgets, ticketing) and afternoons/evenings to rehearsal (text, breath). He relies on a strong “triangle” of collaborators—director Sandler, Creative Atlas for visuals, and New Wave Arts for logistics—to keep the art “oxygenated.”

The play’s message, according to Grzhonko, is that “love isn’t just what you live—it’s what you write, what you remember, and what you fail to say out loud.” The company’s message is aligned: “We make work you can feel from the fifth row without amplification—lean, precise, and emotionally fearless.”

Challenges and Next Steps

The production faces the challenge of successfully integrating the bilingual performance with organic, non-distracting English subtitles and marketing a classic without resorting to “sepia nostalgia.” They specifically chose the ATA Sargent Theatre to ensure the intimate closeness required by the play.

Following the limited New York run, the collaborators plan to take the production on a short tour to Russian- and English-speaking communities and university theatres. Future plans include a potential English-forward version and the development of a companion piece—short film portraits about unread or unsent letters—for online and gallery exhibition.

TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/love-letters-a-play-by-ar-gurney-118403979391